FONT NOTESThe font is a cylindrical tapering bowl, formally part of a circular shaft reversed, face carved with continuous design of beasts and interlacement; beasts include a stag (frequent on Celtic crosses), biting a serpent whose coils interlace the feet of the other animals; a tall horse with paws not hooves; a lion with a mane, biting a small dog with its tail between its legs; and a large animal with a mane (probably a wolf) facing the horse. The are two small legged dragons between the larger animals.

Whatever its precise origin, the whole scene of carved animals is found upside-down.

Yapp, in his treatise on the font at Tollar Fratrum, some five and a half miles (9 km) to the south in the Frome Valley, refers to "another enigmatic font, of a totally different character... It is usually dated at about 1000. The RCHM illustrates sculptured fragments from Melbury Orchard, Batcombe and Cattistock and ascribes them to the 10th and 11th centuries. From these examples it is clear that sculpture flourished in West Dorset at least throughout the 11th century"

Arthur Mee (p. 151) In his usual form, describes it as "the work of some artist far back in time who gave it a bold and handsome circle of hounds chasing deer, with wild beasts preying on each other. Like the lamps of the Foolish Virgins, they are all shown upside down, though the font is shaped like a tumbler and is the right way up. One theory is that the design shows the overthrow of cruelty by the gospel of love; another is that it stands for the overthrow of Creation by sin. It is a very early example of Dorset art, probably part of a sculptured Saxon cross hollowed out for use as a font by the Normans, and is as beautiful as it is curious".

Alternatively, is it possible that the Norman mason simply hollowed out the previously carved shaft from the wrong end before realising his mistake? But then a font with a wide base and narrow top would also look out of proportion.
However, this font is not unique. Bond refers to another hollowed out piller, also upside down, at Wilne, Derbyshire. Fonts formed from parts of other older structures can also be found locally at Tollar Porcorum and Litton Cheney.

Long writes, "Saxon fonts survive in different parts of England, and two at least are to be found in Dorset - Chaldon Herring and Melbury Bubb - while it is quite possible that several, usually assigned to the Norman period, are in reality of Pre-Conquest origin.